With a buoyant pit crew, and riders brimming with enthusiasm, Nick Morgan takes his MSS Discovery team to Oulton Park in Cheshire this weekend for the bank holiday BSB meetingon Monday 5 May.
Having amassed a raft of useful information at the previous Thruxton round, the official team of Kawasaki Motors UK have been boosted by both the agility and the speed of the new Ninja ZX-10R so early in its development cycle as a racing machine.
“Stuart was one of the fastest through the speed trap at Thruxton and coming onto the start finish straight he was simply blisteringly quick”, commented Morgan. Although Thruxton looks quite simple there are many changes in surface and undulations which can upset the dynamics of a motorcycle. In comparison, Oulton is certainly smoother but no less technical as Stuart Easton explains:
“There are many types of corner at this meeting, on and off camber, hairpins, radiused curves and some very demanding gradients. I love it as a pure racing track, but it does take supreme concentration to get the perfect lap… and a bit of luck with the way the start pans out”.
Easton’s team mate, Billy McConnell, has a novel approach to his second official BSB outing for MSS Discovery on the Ninja ZX-10R.
“Some of the corners have such a radius on ‘em that they are like berms on a motocross track. With the agility of our chassis, and the controllability of the engine management, I want to pin the throttle as much as I can and try to use the corners for traction”.
Such optimism is refreshing – especially when it relates to a venue at which Kawasaki has not previously enjoyed a great deal of success. Co-owner of the MSS Discovery team, Stuart Simmonds, thinks the tide is turning.
“After Thruxton the feeling is that we are dining at the big boys table now – not my words but those of Stuart Easton. With unbridled enthusiasm like that, and the progress the boys have made with the agility and drive of the bikes, we go to Oulton with a feeling that it’s truly time for change”.
